Experiments in thought control

Introduction

The following seven films show Matt Nagle control computer programs
and electronic devices using thought power alone. Click on the numbers
above and to the left to watch each film.

25-year-old Nagle is a tetraplegic and the first human volunteer to
reach this advanced stage of testing. 96 electrodes (covering the same
area of a small pill) were implanted into his brain's motor cortex -
the region that processes information about movements. By prerecording
the neural signals of his 'motor intentions' and then playing that information
back to computers calibrated to read that signal it was possible to
Matt to exert control over a computer cursor and work prosthetic devices,
even though his spinal cord was severed more than three years before
the trials.

Previous efforts in humans to control cursors on a computer screen
have been limited to two dimensions. But advances in a field still in
its infancy have shown that in the very first trial of new technologies
significant advances have been made that could one day offer aid and
a degree of independence and mobility to people who have suffered spinal
cord injuries through disease or accident.